Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, I'm on drinking. I've logged over the 7800 dot com about hom decluttering my entire house. I love decluttering, and I love helping creatives like you declutter to the process that I use is uniquely suited for creatives and even re wires the brain. To help ensure decluttering success, we'll learn four easy steps to help you to clutter. First will clarify your focus and make sure your vision for your space is crystal clear. Then we'll take a look at your motivations and your goals for your space, what you want to be able to do in the space and how you want it to look. Then we'll take a look at the challenges, the things that maybe have held you back from decluttering success in the past and will create a mantra that will hope you address these challenges and rewire the pathways in your brain that have led you down a negative path before. We're gonna have a lot of fun, and I hope you'll join me in this class. I can't wait to get started
2. Why Declutter?: So let's dive in and talk about why decluttering is so beneficial for creatives. It only makes sense that when you can easily find the supplies that you need to do your work, you are going to see a much better workflow and higher productivity. When you can dive right into that project, or that your space is already set up and ready to go for you to get started, it's gonna greatly increase how much time you actually spend doing your work. Another area that decluttering really benefits the creative person is it helps you to gain clarity in your purpose, your art and your creative focus in the next section. We're going, Teoh, do some exercises that are really gonna help you get clear on your focus for your creative pursuits. And that clarity is going to help you not only in decluttering your space but also really understanding what it is you're meant to be creating at this time. One of my favorite benefits from decluttering is finding inspiration and what you already have so often we have supplies tucked away out of sight. We maybe even for gotten that we had them, and when we bring them out into the light. When we declutter all of the stuff around them. That's distracting us from seeing what we already have. It's inspiring. Additionally, decluttering helps you understand what you have so that you don't buy multiples. Nothing is more frustrating than spending time or money getting supplies together for a project, and then you get into your space or you're part way through the project and you realize that you already had the supplies you needed. It's wasted time. It's wasted money and decluttering will help you prevent that from happening. Sometimes we have supplies or we have unfinished projects or things from kind of a past phase in our creativity that clutter up both our mental and physical space for our current pursuits. It's really nice to kind of hit the reset button on our creative spaces and make sure they're tailored for what we want to be doing now with our creative energy. Um, example of this, for me would be I used to do stained glass, and I even had an Etsy store selling my pieces for a while, and then we decided to start a family. I got pregnant with my daughter and I just didn't want to expose her to the chemicals that we use in stained glass. So I packed it up and put it away. Well, five years later, and I'm still not doing stainless this phase of my life this time of my life is not a phase for doing sting glasswork. So instead of holding onto these supplies for possibly decades, it's time for me to let them go. There might be things like this in your space. And once you get them out of your space, you're gonna find that your studio is optimized for what you want to be doing now. It doesn't have kind of those ghosts of your past creative process cluttering up the present work that you want to be doing. Finally, the cluttering just feels good. It feels good to get rid of things that aren't serving your purpose. It can be painful in the moment, but once you walk into that space and it truly serves your creative purpose, now it's the best feeling in the world.
3. Focus: so the first step in the mental work of decluttering is identifying your creative focus. And I have a few questions for you to consider about your focus and about what you want to focus on right now. And then I'm gonna give you some hints toe help you through the process. The first question I want you to ask yourself is, What are you excited about creating right now? And I call this the go category like, you know, right now this is something you definitely want to be doing. You don't have toe. Think about it. It's just like what you're really excited about right now. And then I want you to think about things that you often cycle back to so maybe things that you have done in various phases of your life. And you think there's a good probability that your going to be interested in doing them again? I call this a pause categories. So when we do the organizing work after you've de cluttered are pause. Items are going to go in a slightly less accessible place than your go items. But they're things that you've invested in that you still want to have around. And then I finally want you to think about what are the supplies. What are the resource is that you need to let go off. And this is your quit list? Um, thes air things that you try it once. Maybe you took a class in your bottle. The supplies. You're really excited, but it just wasn't for you. We often hang onto supplies or resource is because we've invested money in them. Or there's a time investment and learning the skill or taking the class. And it feels like if we let go of those things, that time or money will be wasted. In reality, this is a sunk cost. You've already spent that time or money and you can't get it back. Allowing these items to clutter up your space and rob you of time, inspiration and focus means that you are, in effect, paying for them twice. Now we're gonna talk about some hints that will help you reframe your mindset and help you as you do your decluttering. So the first hint that really worked for me when I was trying to get into the decluttering mindset is to choose what you want to keep not what you were getting rid of thes. They're gonna be your favorite items, things that you use all the time. They're beautiful or they serve a practical purpose. And it's not just once a year or two, it's something that you use all the time. Imagine you have a completely empty room and you get to choose which things you want to bring back into it. Those they're going to be the most beautiful, the most functional. The best things that you have. And identifying those first makes it easier to let the other things go because you know you already have things that you love. No, maybe even make a list of what things are your most valuable, your MVP's, if you will, and keep that on hand as you declutter. If something doesn't fall into that category or doesn't spark that same type of joy, it's probably a good contender for the discard pile. So I already mentioned this briefly, and we'll talk about it more when we get into the actual work of decluttering. But I think it's important to mention now Try not to handle or touch the things you know you want to discard when we touch things or have them in front of us, it makes it much more difficult for our brain toe. Let go of these items for us to choose to discard them. If you have a bag of things that you know you haven't looked at in weeks or months or years , instead of going through all of those items and coming up with scenarios in which you might use them or getting re attached to them, you could do yourself a favor and put that bag of stuff or that shelf of dusty items on your quit list right now and not have to do the mental work of going through those items after you've seen them. After you've touched them later to help you as you narrowing on your creative focus, I've created this worksheet. It's in the class. Resource is encourage you to fill it out and keep it for when we do the actual work of decluttering in the next class that I offer best of luck to you as you clarify your creative focus
4. Goals and Motivations: so I'd like to take some time to explore your goals and motivations for decluttering. This is going to be very helpful when you start the work of decluttering because it's going to keep you focused on what she hoped to achieve and help sustain the energy and motivation required to actually make it happen. When you go through this activity, it could be very helpful to have someone else do it with you. This could be a friend, a partner and mentor, or even a therapist. Whatever support system you have in place that would be willing to help you or you can always try it on your own to the way we do this is we think about our goals and motivations , kind of on the first level, and make a list of things or reasons why you want to declutter why you went toe clear out things from your creative space. Your first level goals are general reasons for decluttering, often times, and then we're gonna dig a little bit deeper into each one to find that core nugget of truth that riel motivation the true reason that something is important to you, the more we can uncover in our lives about what are true motivations are the more we can pursue or cultivate those motivations and happier, more productive, more creative we can be. So an example of a first level goal would be to get better organized. Decluttering is going to help me become a more organized person. And so I wrote that down on the first level. And now I'm going to think about why, Why is that? Why do I want to be a better organized person? So I might have multiple second level reasons for wanting to get better organized. Perhaps I want to be more productive or I want more space to teach in my studio or I want to stop wasting money buying supplies that I already have. But I just can't find. So those would be like a second level goal. And I'm gonna show you how to take that second level goal of being more productive and really hone in on why that's important. So, um, why do I want to be more productive? Well, I might have multiple third level reasons like I want to make more money. I want to have a better use of my time, but we're going to just take a look at the third level goal of making more money. So Okay, why do I want to make more money? Um well, I want to provide for my family. I want my art to support the people I love in a tangible way. So why is that important to you? Huh? Why is it important to me that I provide for my family? Well, maybe I have somebody in my life who says that art isn't important or that artists don't make enough money or it's too unstable. Maybe the real reason that I want to be able to provide for my family is to prove, prove everyone wrong and show that my work is valuable and that I can make an income from it. So maybe the fifth level is to prove my worth as an artist. Now, think about this. Proving my worth as an artist by being able to provide for my family. Making more money by being more productive is a much more specific reason to declutter than just get better organized, right? Like this is something where I've acknowledged this core desire of my heart to show everyone that Yeah, I could make money doing this. Um, And when I go to Declutter, if I can keep that in mind while I get rid of the things that there may be keeping me from making money like, maybe because my studio isn't organized, I can't, um, film videos in there to do a class like in school share. Or maybe because it's cluttered. I'm not as creative as I could be, or I'm not able to take beautiful shots for my Etsy shop. Um, so being able to say I want to declutter because I'm gonna show everybody that I can really do this and that my art is valuable not only to me and not only in a cultural sense, but people are willing to pay good money for it. That's a really strong motivator to do the work. Let's take a step back and look at another second. My vocal. And I'm just gonna talk you through maybe some of the 3rd 4th 5th level goals in that s O space to teach in the studio. Why is it important to have space to teach in the studio? Well, maybe I love to teach. Okay, Why do you love to teach? Why is that important to you? Why is teaching important to you? Well, um, I think it's important to share information and bring, um, community members into the space. Okay, Well, why is that important to you? Um, and really digging deep. Maybe someone took interest in me when I was a young artist or hadn't even been exposed toe art. And because of that, I'm where I'm at now. Okay, so now we're getting down to the rial. Real truth here, and that's something to keep in mind. You want to keep on going and the sexier size, you might have reasons that go 78 10 levels down. Or they might just go a couple levels down. But wait until it feels true. It feels really true that it's important to me to get declutter because I can prove my worth as an artist. Or it's really true that I want to be able to give back to the community like what was done for me when I didn't have an artist community with Take a look at stop wasting money as our last example. So getting better organized will help me to not waste money. Okay. Why is it important that you not waste money? Well, I have limited resource is and I want to be able to use them wisely. Okay, Why is that important to you? Um so I can do all the projects I want without worrying about if I can afford the supplies . Okay. Well, why is it important to be able to do all the projects that you want to dio? Well, maybe creating keeps me energised and saying in this crazy life. Okay, so maybe that's where your motivation really is that you want to be able to create all the projects that are in your head because it helps you stay energized and keeps your mind and a good place. That's really motivating. So I made this worksheet for you to help you figure out your goals and motivations. And if this format doesn't work for you, maybe you need to do something that's a little more free flowing, or you need to just write lists and I don't want to use that. That's fine. But if you want a little structure, Teoh work through this process. I hope this resource helps you as you go through it. Best of luck. As you figure out your goals and motivations, this is really gonna help you do the decluttering work that follows.
5. Challenges: No, it's talk about the challenges we face when we declutter where you may even discover as you go through this process, that there are challenges you faced in creating your art or in living your best life too. It's amazing what comes up when we start really looking at the barriers in our life for and are thinking that keep us from the pursuits we really wanted to be doing. I know this isn't exactly fun, but the mental work that you put in now is gonna reputed rewards. When you go to do the physical work of decluttering in the next class, it is gonna be totally worth it. And I think you'll see real growth in your mindset and in your process. So I kind of like what we did in the last lesson about your motivations and your goals. We're gonna take a look at your challenges one level at a time, and discover the root causes of challenges. And this may be why you failed to declutter in the past. If you've tried to do that or why you're resistant to the thought or why decluttering has always been so difficult, just like in the last section will take a look at some top level challenges. So one challenge that tons of people talk about is time. So now we think about why is time a problem? And some second level reasons might be, um, I'm just too tired after work to spend the time decluttering. Or maybe I don't have a routine in place, So I don't really plan out my time to have a slot in my schedule for decluttering. Or maybe, um, I have lots of outside commitments. Maybe my Children are involved in sports or I serve on committees or I work multiple jobs or I just have a busy schedule. So those are going to be your second level challenges. Let's take a look at being too tired after work to declutter, and this could be work outside of your creative pursuits. Or this might even be after you're finished for the day with whatever you dio artistically or creatively, and you just too tired. Why is that? Why are you too tired after work to declutter? Well, maybe you have to make dinner or you have to work out or you have other commitments. So you're too tired because you have other things going on and you just can't do it all. Okay? Why is it important to you that you make it for your family, for example? Ah, well, my family is my top priority. Okay? Ha. Your family is your top priority. So where does decluttering or creating fall into that? Oh, I guess decluttering isn't my priority. That feels true. The same way we looked for nuggets of truth in our motivations and our goals. We want to look for the true reason that maybe we have excuses or other reasons that we can't accomplish what we want to accomplish. So it's hard to make time to declutter because I'm too tired after work. I have to make dinner for my family. Why do I have to make dinner? Well, it's important to me to have family time and my family is my top priority, which I guess means that decluttering isn't my priority. We don't want to judge our challenges. It is not a moral failing. It is not a personal fault. If decluttering isn't your top priority. What we're doing is going through this process to really discover why we have these hesitations. Why we have these problems and accomplishing our goals, and I encourage you. If you start to feel shame or guilt as a result of coming up with these challenges to just pause and notice what you're feeling and think about, where is this feeling coming from? There is no wrong answer in this exercise, and the closer you can allow yourself to get to the truth. The braver you are about uncovering thes deeply hidden sometimes challenges the more success you're gonna experience in your class materials. I have this worksheet for you to go through your challenges and at the bottom I ask you to consider how you're gonna face this challenge. So if we think about the last slide where one of the challenges was, I don't have a routine in place. Maybe you're gonna face this by setting aside a time slot for decluttering like I'm gonna declutter half on hour every Tuesday and Thursday where I'm gonna block off three whole days. Teoh declutter my studio and really optimize it for my creative pursuits. Sometimes the best thing to do is to implement a mantra toe, help us through our decluttering work. Let's take a look at an example. So let's think about some mantras that are helpful for facing the reality that maybe decluttering isn't my priority right now. It's not. The priority hasn't been a priority, but I want to make it a priority. Maybe I feel guilty if I am not making dinner for my family every night. So I need to come up with ah phrase that's going to reassure me that this is okay. Maybe something like making time for for decluttering is important. In order to give to others, I have toe also nourish myself. Another idea is that decluttering as an investment in my creativity and is worth the time involved in the next section. We're going to take a deeper look at mantra as and how you're going to use Montrose as your class project to motivate yourself and others as you tackle the decluttering process.
6. Mantra: Now you've done the work of identifying your motivations and goals of tackling your challenges and getting down to the root of what's holding you back. It's time to write your mantra. Here are some hints about how to write a mantra that's gonna be very effective in keeping you in a good mind set for decluttering for your class project. I've created a worksheet for you to write your Montrose on and feel free to use that or use whatever artistic medium you prefer. Feel free to be as creative as you'd like in creating your mantra. The most effective mantra. Zehr pretty short anywhere from one word to a couple of sentences. Try to fingerprint mantra in a positive way instead of something like I won't get overwhelmed or I won't be negative. Try something like every little bit of decluttering helps me make my space better, or staying in a positive frame of mind makes me a happier person. Envision what you want your space to be like with one or two words. So this is, ah, special kind of mantra where you're gonna think about your space when it's finished, when it's beautiful, when it's functional, And when you walk into that space, what's like a one or two word feeling or adjective to describe what that spaces like, something like calm or inspiring or productive. And this will be a good word to use as a mantra when you're decluttering because it helps you frame that thing that you're trying to make a decision about in terms of that word. So, for example, if you're mantra word for your space is inspiring and you come across a you know, old project that you feel guilty that you haven't finished, you can ask yourself, Is this project inspiring? If it's not which, in that example, it wouldn't be, then that might help you let go. But even if you feel some negative feelings about letting it go, it helps you to focus on the positive word that you're hoping to create in your space. Just a little hint. Sometimes I like to write my own mantra on a three by five index card or something of a similar size and carry in my pocket. And if I reach into my pocket during the day, it just reminds me of my mantra, and the more we think these words on phrases. The more we say them, the more our brain gets rewired to believe them. And those negative paths that we're used to going down and are thinking get re written to that positive mantra. It's very powerful. So once you've come up with your mantra as if you feel comfortable and it's not a problem if you don't, I think sometimes mantra zehr very personal. But if you feel inspired or you want to share your mantra with me and with the other skill share students, uh, take a picture or upload your mantra into the class project section, I promise that I'll read everyone, and it'll just be a nice way that we can inspire each other with our positive words.
7. Next Steps!: thank you so much for joining me in this class. If it's so much fun exploring this process with you and I can't wait to see the mantra is that you've come up with, I hope you'll join me in my next class, which will be about the actual work of decluttering. I'll show you some shots of myself as I de cluttered in my own studio. We'll take a look at your before and after pictures for your class project, and you'll get tons of hints and tricks to help you as you declutter. I also want to shout out to my mentor, Gillian Jobs, Rude of Montana Money adventures. She was the first person who taught me a lot of these techniques, and they've totally changed my life. I hope they'll change your life for the better to things again. And best of luck in your process.
Audra King, M. Ed., Creator. Teacher. Minimalist.
